Diogo Miguel Alves Luís (born 10 August 1980) is a Portuguese retired

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who played as a

left back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

Football career

Born in

Lisbon Lisbon (; pt, Lisboa ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 544,851 within its administrative limits in an area of 100.05 km2. Grande Lisboa, Lisbon's urban area extends beyond the city's administr ...

, Luís was a prospect of S.L. Benfica youth system, where he arrived at age 15. On 29 August 1999, he made his debut for the

B team B, or b, is the second letter of the Latin-script alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is '' bee'' (pronounced ), plural ''bees''. It r ...

in the third tier, in a match against Portimonense. After forty appearances in the reserve side, he was called up to the first team by

José Mourinho José Mário dos Santos Mourinho Félix GOIH (; born 26 January 1963), is a Portuguese professional football manager and former player who is the current head coach of Italian Serie A club Roma. Once dubbed "The Special One" by the British ...

, due to the lack of available left-backs. He debuted on 2 October 2000 in a home tie against Braga, and a further twenty-two league caps in his first season, as Benfica had their worst league finish ever. In the following season,

Marco Caneira Marco António Simões Caneira (born 9 February 1979) is a Portuguese former professional footballer. Preferably a central defender, he was equally at ease on the right or left flank. A youth graduate at Sporting CP, he started his career at t ...

earned the left-back position, so Luís playing time was greatly reduced, being loaned to

Alverca Alverca do Ribatejo () is a city (''cidade'') and a former civil parish in the municipality of Vila Franca de Xira, Portugal. In 2013, the parish merged into the new parish Alverca do Ribatejo e Sobralinho. It covers an area of and had a pop ...

on 15 January 2002. On 18 July 2002, he moved to

Beira-Mar Sport Clube Beira-Mar () is a Portuguese sports club based in Aveiro, Portugal. Its football team currently plays in the Campeonato de Portugal, the fourth national level, having gained promotion by winning the Aveiro FA First Division 2018/19 ...

in a deal involving Cristiano going the other direction. After two years in Aveiro, he moved to four more clubs in the next five years, which included a stint in Cyprus, retiring at 28 in 2009. He now works as financial advisor in a bank.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Luis, Diogo 1980 births Living people Portuguese men's footballers Men's association football defenders Primeira Liga players S.L. Benfica B players S.L. Benfica footballers F.C. Alverca players S.C. Beira-Mar players Associação Naval 1º de Maio players G.D. Estoril Praia players Varzim S.C. players Leixões S.C. players Apollon Limassol FC players Portuguese expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Cyprus Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Cyprus Portugal men's under-21 international footballers Footballers from Lisbon